The present invention relates to the domain of handling flat articles and more particularly to a bin for feeding flat articles integrated in a document folding/insertion machine.
An example of architecture of document folding/insertion machine is illustrated in Applicants"" French Patent Application FR 2 782 673. FIG. 1 of this Application illustrates a second magazine 500 of advertizing inserts or reply-envelopes located below a first magazine 400 of empty envelopes or reply-envelopes.
In the first feed magazine, as the documents tend to escape by gravity, they are easily ejected and selected via take-up rollers 405, 406 and the guiding element 404, respectively, the mobile rear presser 403 merely compressing the stack of documents resting on a supporting plate 401 between two self-centred lateral guides 402, without supporting the weight thereof.
On the contrary, it is quite a different matter concerning the second feed magazine of which the rear presser 503 must withstand all the weight of the stack of documents. This results in frequent defects in entrainment, jammings, deformations and undesired multiple selections. In addition, the particular positioning of this magazine at the bottom and to the rear of the machine necessarily imposes thereon a lateral and frontal loading of the documents.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the afore-mentioned drawbacks by providing a laterally and frontally loaded document feed bin. Another object of the invention is to propose a bin which has a sufficient loading capacity while being compact. It is a further object of the invention to produce a bin of which the pressure exerted on the stack of documents is adjustable depending on the type of documents loaded.
These objects are attained by a laterally and frontally loaded document feed bin, comprising mobile means for pushing these documents against a supporting wall, wherein it comprises a lever for selecting a mode of operation in order to select a first and a second position, and said mobile pushing means comprise first thrust adjustment means in order, in said first selected position, to exert a first thrust pressure on said documents, and second thrust adjustment means in order, in said second selected position, to exert an additional thrust pressure on said documents.
With this particular configuration, jammings and multiple entrainments are thus avoided due to a more or less great compression of the stack of documents depending on the type of documents processed.
According to a preferred embodiment, the mobile pushing means comprise a thrust plate supported by an articulated parallelogram mechanism on a chassis and moving against said first and second thrust adjustment means. These first and second thrust adjustment means preferably comprise elastic elements acting in traction.
The bin according to the invention advantageously further comprises a disengaging lever fast with said parallelogram mechanism and extending laterally towards the outside of this bin in order to lower said thrust plate and allow a user to effect a lateral and frontal loading of the documents by hand.
According to an advantageous characteristic, the first thrust adjustment means comprise a primary traction spring fixed by a first end to a first arm of said parallelogram mechanism and by a second end to said chassis, and the second thrust adjustment means comprise a secondary spring fixed by a first end to a second arm of said parallelogram mechanism and by a second end to the operation selection lever pivoting about a lug fixed on said chassis so as selectively to exert a determined force of traction on this second end.
The secondary spring preferably comprises a small traction spring, with contiguous or non-contiguous turns, of which one end forms said first end of said secondary spring and of which another end is extended by an axial rod terminating at the level of said second end of said secondary spring by a spirally wound open loop.
The present invention also relates to a folding/insertion machine integrating the afore-mentioned integrated document feed bin.